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In 1943, trolley ridership was at an all time high in Baltimore. The Baltimore Transit Company experienced record profits, and company leadership expected to continue to expand trolley service in and around the city. By 1947, the company had completely changed course and was in the process of abandoning 170 of its 312 miles of trolley track line and nearly half of its trolley routes, at a loss of more than 21 million dollars. The trolleys were to be replaced with new diesel buses. In 1963 the last streetcar ran in Baltimore.

The Circuit Court and Court of Appeals case Warren v. Fitzgerald details a shareholder’s legal challenge to this decision by the Officers and Directors of the Baltimore Transit Company in 1947, in which the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore intervened as a defendant. This paper explores the role of this particular case and the social and political situation surrounding it in the expanse of Baltimore’s legal and environmental history.